'I feel the Lord is saying that what He has begun, He has now finished. His faithful workers have produced His Word for all the people to read. But now He is starting a new work that will affect all of Australia. It will start like ripples in a pond after a stone thrown into the water, and will become a tsunami, and it will come from the faithful expounding and teaching from this new Bible. People's hearts and lives will be changed and this nation will never be the same.'

Anne lived at Galiwin'ku for several years around 1990 and has had a strong intercessory burden for the Yolngu people and their destiny in the nation. For fifteen years her health has suffered seriously and she has been very close to death for a lot of that time. During the last few months God has been restoring her health. 

The prophecy reminds me of a time back in January 1979. Maybe its best if I quote from the Preface I wrote in Fire in the Outback.

{mospagebreak title=God does things differently}

God does things differently 

"We had come to this conference really expecting something from God.

January, 1979.  "We were sitting on the steps of the Opera House on the foreshore of Sydney's beautiful harbour - my wife, June, our 3 young daughters and me, along with thousands of others at the opening meeting of the Temple Trust's International Conference on the Holy Spirit and the Church.  Rev Alan Langstaff was talking about a vision God had given him.  

"I had just completed a 2 year term as Community Worker with Aborigines at Galiwin'ku - more commonly known by non-Aborigines as Elcho Island - a community just off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.  It had been very pleasant, there in a rather idillic tropical reserve, but hard work . I had spent a lot of time out in the bush with Aborigines who were well motivated to develop their homelands.  I was there to help them work through their own goals and to deal with the western world so they could achieve these goals in their own way and timing.  

"We had committed ourselves to 6 years there so that an Aboriginal team could be trained to do the work without another westerner.  It always seems to take at least 2 years for a new staff member to see through their own culture and expectations and start to understand and hear Aboriginal ways before anything really worthwhile could be achieved.

"But things had developed differently to what we expected.  We had managed to get together a team of Aboriginal community and office workers. Jovilisi Ragata had joined the team. He is a Fijian who had worked in Eastern Arnhem Land for many years in various roles and spoke their language far better than I.  

"They all had their own gifts and contributions to make to the team, and I felt that, somehow, God had speeded things up and my contribution had been made.  If I stayed longer, I would hold them back in their development.

"The Church asked us to move to Alice Springs to commence a new work with the transient and fringe Aborigines there. 

{mospagebreak title=Not by my ability}

 Not by my ability

"We accepted the challenge with a sense of awe:  'God, despite what the Church thinks, nothing in my background, training or experience have equipped me for this.'..... 

"Sure, my mother had been a missionary with Aborigines before I was born, and we grew up with them frequently in our home in Sydney.  

"Sure, we had taught in an Aboriginal school for 3 years, and I had studied anthropology, community work, sociology, psychology, theology, Old & New Testament etc at the University of Sydney for over 7 years to equip me for this sort of work.

"Sure, I had been through a period of almost 12 months deeply searching for a new release of God's power and anointing, saying: 'Lord, do whatever You need to do in me so that You are able to use me however You choose.'

"God's refining fire had really been at work on me during 1978, especially over attitudes and things in my life which had become too important, and especially over music and my piano.  My cultural values were challenged, answering a prayer from four years earlier that had taken us out of our own culture to work with another one, so that our own cultural values could be seen more from God's perspective.   

"And God had challenged my dependance on my education and training:- 

'Not through psychology, philosophy, anthropology, theology, or anything from your teacher training, social work or theology degrees or anything else except by My Spirit', says the Lord.

"He would use that training as He chose, but I was to look to Him alone.  And, at the end of that year of the refining fire, God had released me in a real baptism of Holy Spirit gifts and power ministry that was so much greater than anything I had found before, at a very special night of prayer at Galiwin'ku in December, 1978.

"But even back in September when we were asked to move to Alice Springs, our minds turned to the memory of our one visit to Alice Springs and the drunken, dispirited Aboriginal fringe dwellers we saw there who were caught between their own culture and ours, without meaning or hope in life.  We responded to the Church's request by saying, 

'Lord, without You we can't do this work.  We sense Your call to us, but You will have to do it!  Please give us some direction and clues about how to proceed.'

"Then I was told by the head of the mission department of the Uniting Church's Northern Synod:  'You won't find anyone, anywhere in the world who has any real clues on how to go about this work.'

"..... 'Thanks a lot!!! .... 'God, .... H E L P !!!'

"So we had come to this conference expecting some sort of answer from God.

{mospagebreak title=God's Revival Firestorm} 

God's Revival Firestorm 

"Alan's words to the Conference about his vision were exciting and his voice rang across the harbour. He told about God's promise to him that He would renew Australia from the time white man first came to this land. 

"Suddenly my thoughts raced off:  'Why would God only renew the land from the time white people came?  Wouldn't He renew it right back from the beginning of man's spoiling this land He had created - back when the first  people came?'

"Then the thoughts were even stronger - somehow, not my own - almost a vision or picture rather than just words: 

'That's right!  I will renew the land - from the beginning!  I have lit a fire at Elcho!  That's what I did last year ...the struggles.....that night of prayer and warfare....  I have lit a spark there, that will light fires all over the land! It will go from black to black all over the land, and from black to white.  I will renew the whole land and it will go beyond Australia to other lands!'

"Well, that really set my thoughts racing, and I said: 'Lord, this has to be the wildest dream I have ever had!!  If that is really from YOU, please confirm it!'

"The excitement in the crowd rose at God's promise through Alan's message that He would renew the land - and everyone stood to praise God loudly.  A ship moved past the Opera House on the harbour and gave a long blast on its fog horn - it seemed to join the crowd in shouting 'Praise the Lord!'

".... and our 6 year old daughter turned to June and said: 

'Mummy, was that a didgeridoo?'

"  'O.K. Lord, that will do for a start of the confirmation!'  "